New home construction could be a ‘real grind’ for Metro Vancouver in 2014

The new home industry can expect 2014 to be a “real grind” as impending municipal elections in Metro Vancouver could slow down the rate of...more

The new home industry can expect 2014 to be a “real grind” as impending municipal elections in Metro Vancouver could slow down the rate of approval for new housing projects, Vancouver real estate guru Michael Ferreira said Thursday.

The new home industry can expect 2014 to be a “real grind” as impending municipal elections in Metro Vancouver could slow down the rate of approval for new housing projects, Vancouver real estate guru Michael Ferreira said Thursday.

Ferreira warned a meeting of the Urban Development Institute to expect “to see more of this,” and he showed a slide of a protest signs that can be seen around Marpole in South Vancouver saying “Stop Marpole Rezoning.”

The signs are protesting the city’s proposed housing densification of the Marpole neighbourhood.

“In terms of supply of new homes, I think we will continue to see it constrained — especially over the next year. One of the biggest reasons is the municipal elections coming up in 2014.

“I think those on council and those people seeking reelection will be loathe to make any kind of controversial decision (on new housing),” said Ferreira, who is a principal of the Vancouver company Urban Analytics.

“So it really freezes our market and, for those politicians who wax on about wanting to provide affordable product, it doesn’t help if we go a year without adding more supply,” Ferreira said.

“As an industry I think we are going to have to work a lot harder to show people in neighbourhoods that we are working with them,” he said.

In his overall assessment of the new housing market this year, Ferreira said it has been a lot like the weather.

“It’s been a bit hard to figure out — a bit tough to see through the fog in some places — but certainly some bright spots,” he said.

As an example, he pointed to concrete condominium sales levels, which were higher than he had expected.

Ferreira said 4,253 units had been sold in Metro so far this year, compared to 2,546 to the same date in 2012. Bright spots included Richmond, with 878 concrete condos sold this year, and the Tri-cities (Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody), with nearly 500 concrete condos sold to date, a 74-per-cent increase over last year

However, Metro’s wood-frame condominium sales were “not quite as good,” with 1,832 sold so far in 2013, compared to 2,502 to the same date in 2012. Townhomes showed a similar trend.